I Will Not Read The New ‘Sex And The University’ Book

Instead of leafing through Economics textbooks this semester, there’s going to be something juicier in the campus bookstore come September. It comes in the form of a book called Sex and the University and it is a book investigating sex columns in college newspapers. Haha, we get it — like Sex and the City, but for college!

Daniel Reimold’s $19.99 collegiate sex column tome asks lots of important questions, like, “What are modern students actually saying about sex in the columns and magazines? What motivated the students to take on the sex columnist mantle? Why are these columnists such rock stars on campus? And what is it like for them personally and professionally?”

Sure, this is interesting, but ain’t no college kid going to read this. Two reasons: 1) it sounds like a book for professors/olds and 2) college kids don’t buy non-fiction research books if they don’t have to.

Full disclosure: I happen to be an amateur expert on the subject. For a few months, I edited (did not write!) a sex column at a college blog. People read sex columns/blogs on college campuses because it’s fun to gossip and be shocked that OMG that girl in my Psych 101 class wrote a sex column. It’s not for the stories (usually) but it’s for the sport of talking about it. College gurlz and guyz, you with me?

The only people shocked by the stories themselves are parents and maybe professors. These are also the only people who buy books. When it’s 2 for 1 drinks at the college bar vs. twenty bucks on a non-required book, I think we all know which one wins.

Though it sounds amusing, I’m thinking this is a book for the olds, who want to gain some weak insight into what “hooking up” means.